swbkrun with us!!! - Closed (Page 113)

So, um, I'm having an issue.  I'm peeing blood after each run.  It started 2.5- 3 months ago but only after my long runs.  About 1.5 months ago I asked my Dr about it and she said from my description she's certain it's just b/c of the "trauma" to the bladder while running and I don't need to worry.  She did urinalysis which came back a-ok. 

Well, as of this week it is now happening after every run and the only thing I can even remotely tie this to is my running shoes.  I switched to Brooks Ghosts 3 months ago from Asics Gel Nimbus. Anyone experience something similar?  Also, I've got a HM next Sunday, should I go out and get new shoes now or wait until after the race?

Jen asks: I have been using your Shape21 program. I have lost 10 lbs in three weeks and run 1 mile per hour faster. The only problem is I’m having is blood in my urine. My urologist cannot see anything wrong. I guess this happens with running. I have had this problem before with marathon training. However it seems to be more frequent and I am running at a lower mileage.

Ben answers: Bloody urine with exercise. It’s something that I’ve seen happen before. I’ve had it before after a triathlon and it’s something that happens a lot with long distance runners. The medical term for it is hematerrea. And one of the main reasons for it is because you get impact of the walls of the bladder while you’re running. So this repetitive impact time after time can cause damage enough to the bladder wall to where there’s a little bit of bleeding that happens and some of that blood ends up getting into your urine. The same way that excess friction might cause your nipples to bleed or the inside of your thighs to chafe.

Another reason could be a problem with the permeability of the filtering apparatus in your kidney. Inside your kidney, there’s basically a network of blood vessels that surround a membrane and the membrane is called your glomerelous. And whereas normally blood doesn’t get through the glomerelous when you exercise, it may increase the permeability of the glomerelous and allow red blood cells to actually collect in the urine and typically stops once you stop exercising. And then the last thing could be a hemoglobin problem and that can occur when red blood cells are actually physically damaged as they pass through the blood capillaries of your feet while you’re running, as your foot impacts the ground and this can cause a release of the hemoglobin in the actual cell and the hemoglobin ends up getting excreted in the urine and causes that red color in the urine. So, any of these can happen and one of the things that can increase your susceptibility to this is if you are increasing in the intensity or the impact nature of your activity or if you are taking something that is considered an anticoagulant or a natural blood thinner.

Now some of the things that are natural blood thinners would be anything that’s high in what’s called salacylites and that would be like a lot of these herbs like curry powder, cayenne, ginger, thyme, cinnamon, peppermint. Taking in large amounts of any of these… and interestingly, oregano as well which I know I recommend in the Shape21 program, could cause enough blood thinning to where if you combined it with enough impact based exercise, you could get some blood in the urine. A high intake of vitamin E could also cause that as well as high intake of omega 3 fatty acids. Now, if you are naturally susceptible to having thin blood and have this hematerrea and you’re taking oil of oregano which I recommend in Shape21 and you are taking Omega 3 fatty acid which I recommend in Shape21, it is possible that that could be causing the blood in your urine. What I would do is I would not take the oil of oregano and I would back off the Omega 3 fatty acid intake. Cut that down just a little bit, pay attention to it. See what happens to it and that may have an effect. The other thing you may want to do is for the high intensity interval sessions that are in that program – especially if you’re doing the advanced nature of that program, then you may want to substitute. Instead of doing running for the high intensity intervals, do a non-impact like bicycling or elliptical trainer.

Now of course Shape21 – I have that at beginner level to where an elderly person could go in sedentary and start into the beginner program and do ok all the way to advance which is something that I did for about six months. Got super ripped. But it definitely kicked my butt. So there’s different levels in that program that you can access and either way you may want to just look into the supplements that you’re using and look into dropping down the impact nature a little bit. If you’ve seen a doctor and they’re not too concerned, I’m not too concerned. But again it could be something to look into from a blood thinning and an impact perspective